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Fwd: Establishing A New Station

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Phil Kane-2

Fwd: Establishing A New Station

On 5/13/2020 12:42 PM, [hidden email] wrote:

> Im thinking of a loop. I've had good luck with them. Any thoughts?

I've been using a loop on the porch of our ground level apartment. At
15 watts. It is useless - can't get it to tune properly and I often
think that I would have a better signal with my dummy load at 100 watts.
If you are getting good luck you must be doing something right. At
east you have the advantage of 34 stories - good for you.

73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane
Elecraft K2/100 s/n 5402

From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest
Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon
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Mooneer Salem

Re: Fwd: Establishing A New Station

I've been playing with a MFJ loop for my second floor condo and I can say
that loops are extremely sensitive to any close objects/surfaces. For
instance, tuning changed significantly when I had mine laying on the roof
vs. ~4ft above it (to the point where SWR was marginal on the lower part of
40m with the former). It was horizontal both times, too.

Also, loops are going to have more loss at the lower end of their design
range due to physics. 15w may very well not be enough to make contacts
depending on how it's designed, though band conditions also play a role.

-Mooneer K6AQ

On Thu, May 14, 2020 at 7:21 PM Phil Kane <[hidden email]> wrote:

>
> On 5/13/2020 12:42 PM, [hidden email] wrote:
>
> > Im thinking of a loop. I've had good luck with them. Any thoughts?
>
> I've been using a loop on the porch of our ground level apartment. At
> 15 watts. It is useless - can't get it to tune properly and I often
> think that I would have a better signal with my dummy load at 100 watts.
> If you are getting good luck you must be doing something right. At
> east you have the advantage of 34 stories - good for you.
>
> 73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane
> Elecraft K2/100 s/n 5402
>
> From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest
> Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to [hidden email]
>

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k6dgw

Re: Fwd: Establishing A New Station

In reply to this post by Phil Kane-2

Small mag loops can be effective antennas if you can't put up 5 over 5
over 5. One caveat: They are resonant transformers and the loop MUST
be exactly resonant at your QRG. This means, bypass any ATU and tune the
loop [only] for 1:1 SWR. Using the "get it close and let the ATU match
it" scheme will lead to a round, fairly pricey dummy load.

73,
Fred ["Skip"] K6DGW
Sparks NV DM09dn
Washoe County

On 5/14/2020 7:19 PM, Phil Kane wrote:

> On 5/13/2020 12:42 PM, [hidden email] wrote:
>
>> Im thinking of a loop. I've had good luck with them. Any thoughts?
> I've been using a loop on the porch of our ground level apartment. At
> 15 watts. It is useless - can't get it to tune properly and I often
> think that I would have a better signal with my dummy load at 100 watts.
> If you are getting good luck you must be doing something right. At
> east you have the advantage of 34 stories - good for you.
>
> 73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane
> Elecraft K2/100 s/n 5402
>

Dan Presley

Re: Fwd: Establishing A New Station

In reply to this post by Phil Kane-2

Loops are touchy by nature and you have to be very sensitive to the surroundings-metals, bodies (yes your body in close proximity will affect tuning). I use a small antenna analyzer to get it close and sometimes I have to adjust and step away from the antenna,take a reading and readjust I then follow up with adjustments with the radio connected for maximum band noise Also it needs to be a minimum of one diameter of the loop above ground,and more is better within reason. Is there a close ceiling that limits the height of the loop? Getting it in the clear is important,although with patience I’ve made contacts even indoors. Pick the bands carefully for propagation and as mentioned earlier tune for resonance. I’m strictly a QRP CW guy (5W Max) and have had good results by carefully adjusting to the surroundings and conditions. I have 2 loops-the AlexLoop and the W4OP. AlexLoop is good for 20 M and up while the W4OP is very efficient at 30,40 and 60 M. It’s very well made and an excellent design,although not the best option for backpacking as it’s a bit heavier.

Dan Presley 503-701-3871
danpresley@me. com
[hidden email]

> On May 14, 2020, at 19:21, Phil Kane <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
>
>> On 5/13/2020 12:42 PM, [hidden email] wrote:
>>
>> Im thinking of a loop. I've had good luck with them. Any thoughts?
>
> I've been using a loop on the porch of our ground level apartment. At
> 15 watts. It is useless - can't get it to tune properly and I often
> think that I would have a better signal with my dummy load at 100 watts.
> If you are getting good luck you must be doing something right. At
> east you have the advantage of 34 stories - good for you.
>
> 73 de K2ASP - Phil Kane
> Elecraft K2/100 s/n 5402
>
> From a Clearing in the Silicon Forest
> Beaverton (Washington County) Oregon
> ______________________________________________________________
> Elecraft mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:[hidden email]
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> Message delivered to [hidden email]